Reueng-reueng is a locality which serves as one of the traditional boundary points of Acheh Proper, the kernel of the kingdom of Acheh. In The Achehnese Vol. I, Snouck Hurgronje invokes Reueng-reueng in connection with the Achehnese conception of the limits of their own country.
The Boundaries of Acheh Proper
The author explains that the kernel of the kingdom, which has supplied the outlying districts with a considerable portion of their inhabitants and has constantly striven to exercise more or less dominion over them, is — according to the Achehnese idea — bounded by a line extending from Kluang on the west to Krueng Raya on the north coast, and passing through Reueng-reueng, Pancha and Janthoe. Reueng-reueng thus stands as one of the three interior landmarks — together with Pancha and Janthoe — by which the Achehnese themselves marked off the heart of their country from the outer districts of Great Acheh and from the dependent territories beyond.
The Idea of Acheh
The boundaries thus drawn are not, the author cautions, to be confounded with the limits of the wider Achehnese empire, which at various times extended far down the coasts of Sumatra. They represent, rather, the Achehnese idea of their own country, of the land in which the manners and the speech of the capital were understood, and from which the outlying districts drew their colonists. Reueng-reueng, lying on this inner line, marks the limit of that tighter country, and serves — like its fellow landmarks — as a point of reference in the political geography of the kingdom.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.